Tensions are rising between police unions and the cities they patrol amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
San Francisco’s police union sparked a Twitter row with the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency on Wednesday, telling officials not to ask cops for help when crime occurs on one of their buses or light-rail cars.
The apparent threat came after Muni announced in a string of tweets that it would no longer ‘transport SFPD to anti-police brutality protests’.
In Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed after an white cop knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest on May 25, the head of the city’s police union, Lt Bob Kroll, is facing calls to resign as critics view him as a longtime obstacle to reform.
On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arrandondo said that the department will withdraw from police union contract negotiations as he announced initial steps in what he said would be transformational reforms to the agency.
In Florida, a union chief along the state’s Space Coast was suspended earlier this week after he offered to hire cops accused of brutality in other parts of the country.
Lt. Bert Gamin, president of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Brevard County, had posted on the organization’s Facebook page: ‘Hey Buffalo 57 … and Atlanta 6 … we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences … Plus … we got your back!’
San Francisco’s police union sparked a Twitter row with the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency on Wednesday, telling officials not to ask cops for help when crime occurs on one of their buses or light-rail cars. The apparent threat came after Muni announced in a string of tweets that it would no longer ‘transport SFPD to anti-police brutality protests’
In Minneapolis, the head of the city’s police union, Lt Bob Kroll (left), is facing calls to resign as critics view him as a longtime obstacle to reform. In Florida, Brevard County union leader Lt Bert Gamin (right) was suspended after he offered to hire cops accused of brutality in other parts of the country
Lt. Bert Gamin, president of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Brevard County, share the Facebook post above over the weekend on the organization’s Facebook page
San Francisco’s transportation agency showed solidarity with protesters on Tuesday as it halted service across its lines for eight minutes and 46 seconds – the exact amount of time Floyd was pinned to the ground.
It announced the tribute on Twitter writing: ‘This symbolic action reflects the SFMTA’s efforts to address systemic racism as a part of our day-to-day work at the agency.
‘We’ll advance our agency-wide implicit bias training and other equity trainings that provide us with personal/professional tools to address the agency’s and our own bias to ensure that all are heard and included in our future.
A third tweet added: ‘The SFMTA will no longer transport SFPD to anti-police brutality protests.’
The San Francisco Police Officers Association launched an attack the following day.
‘Hey Muni, lose our number next time you need officers for fare evasion enforcement or removing problem passengers from your buses and trains,’ union officials wrote in a tweet.
‘Shouldn’t be a [San Francisco police] officer’s job anyway. [Chief Bill Scott] should stop using us for this.’
San Francisco’s transportation agency showed solidarity with protesters on Tuesday as it halted service across its lines for eight minutes and 46 seconds – the exact amount of time Floyd was pinned to the ground. It announced the tribute in a Twitter thread (pictured)
Tony Montoya, president of the police union, told the San Francisco Chronicle he was ‘taken aback’ by the Muni tweet.
‘Muni seems to be jumping on the bandwagon, buying into and spreading the rhetoric that’s not true,’ he said.
‘But if Muni doesn’t want us, maybe we shouldn’t be responding to the person sleeping in the back of the coach at the end of the night. Maybe we shouldn’t respond to fare evasion… They can’t have it both ways.’
Montoya said that members of his union will continue to respond to calls for service, but urged policymakers to review where they want a police presence.
‘I thought the city’s supposed to be united right now,’ he said. ‘It seems apparent that they’re trying to drive a very deep wedge — not only between the police and the community, but between the police and other city departments.’
Police Chief Bill Scott said he wanted to assure citizens that his officers will respond when called to emergencies.
‘Any suggestion otherwise — whether in social media or elsewhere — is mistaken and irresponsible,’ Scott told the Chronicle.
‘Whenever we’re needed, the San Francisco Police Department will be there. That’s a promise from me as your Chief of Police, and it’s a promise to which every officer in this department is sworn.’
Muni Chief Jeffery Tumlin acknowledged his agency’s longstanding practice of transporting police but said he did not realize that its buses were being used for protest enforcement until he read about it on social media.
He told the Chronicle the discovery led to ‘many very powerful internal conversations… about what is our rightful role in promoting justice and equality in San Francisco’.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin applauded Muni’s bold action and slammed the police union’s tweet, branding it a ‘derelection of duty’.
Fellow Supervisor Dean Preston argued that the sight of a Muni bus dropping off officers at protests gives the impression that the agency has chosen the side of police.
Montoya said that it was unfair to compare the SFPD with the Minneapolis Police Department because the former has more policies in place to reduce violence between police and citizens.
Tensions are rising between police unions and the cities they patrol amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Pictured: Protesters march across the Golden Gate Bridge on June 6
Meanwhile the Minneapolis PD is laying plans for sweeping reforms after the local City Council voted to dismantle or defund the department.
At a Wednesday press conference, Chief Arradondo said he would use a new system to identify problem officers early and intervene.
‘We will have a police department that our communities view as legitimate, trusting and working with their best interests at heart,’ he said at a news conference more than two weeks after Floyd died after a white officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed black man’s neck even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.
Activists have pointed to racial inequities and brutality, as well as a system that rarely disciplines problem officers.
The officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, had 17 complaints against him and had been disciplined only once.
Arradondo said ‘taking a deliberate pause’ to review the union contract is the first step toward change.
He said it’s debilitating for a chief when an officer does something that calls for termination, but the union works to keep that person on the job.
Advisers will look for ways to restructure the contract to provide more transparency and flexibility, he said.
The review will look at critical incident protocols, use of force, and disciplinary protocols, including grievances and arbitration, among other things.
On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arrandondo (pictured) said that the department will withdraw from police union contract negotiations as he announced initial steps in what he said would be transformational reforms to the agency
The police union’s contract with the department expired at the end of last year but remains in effect until there is a new one.
Talks began in October and eventually included a state mediator; the last discussion was in early March, when the coronavirus led to talks breaking off.
Arradondo sidestepped a question about whether he thought the union’s leader, Kroll, often seen as an obstacle to changes, should step down.
He also didn’t directly answer a question about whether residents should worry about a slowdown in police response time as a pushback against attempts to transform the department.
Some City Council members have said in the past that their wards saw such slowdowns when they complained about police action.
In an interview later, Arradondo said it’s up to the union’s members to decide whether Kroll should resign.
But he said he hopes the union leadership takes to heart ‘the fierce urgency of now.’ He said he doesn’t believe rank-and-file officers are an obstacle to change. He also said citizens ‘should not be concerned or worried’ about any slowdown in service.
‘Our men and women continue to show up,’ he said. ‘They’re showing up on their shifts. They’re showing up out there in the community. They’re answering the calls.’